Scholarships are worth very little in monetary terms to a lot of lads now.

Is that actually true? It’s a long life after football. Qualifications help.

The dirty little secret of scholarships is the extra points awarded by the university. That’s the real value. If you’re good at football or hurling (or other sports) and you don’t quite hit the mark then colleges will add up to fifty points to your total, enabling you to get into courses that you otherwise would not qualify for. That’s their real value. Monetarily the registration fee may be waived but there’s very little on offer after that. If fellas are willing to give that up then you’d have to think that it’s not worth that much to them.

That’s very interesting indeed . Out of curiosity , what benefit is it to the college to have these “good” players .If they win trophies do they receive prize money or something .Or does it help secure sponsorship if the team is going well . I imagine it’s about the bobs , yeah ??

No idea. The cynic in me thinks it just keeps people in jobs. Those were the days when the GAA was run almost entirely without remuneration.

It’s about prestige, which is related to investment and sponsorship and general pulling power. Unis are big business. DCU has come from a very low base to rivalling the traditional institutions, by being amongst other things very ambitious and business savvy. However it never strikes me as a nice place to be a student unless you’re also ambitious and a high-achiever.

There’s more than. Getting into the college is only the start of it. The real bonuses start then. It’s well known that a lot of scholarship recipients get preferential treatment cone exam time. I’m aware of two players (one a prominent ex dub) who used to get the exam papers the night before the exam.

There’s more than. Getting into the college is only the start of it. The real bonuses start then. It’s well known that a lot of scholarship recipients get preferential treatment cone exam time. I’m aware of two players (one a prominent ex dub) who used to get the exam papers the night before the exam.

Is that the only thing college should be about? I’m all for excellence but I’m mostly for a good balance. Anyway it was only my opinion and I didn’t do any courses in DCU, do I was looking for responses from those who did or who work there.
I was going to do a course there but pulled out and waited a year to try to do it in another place because I got the impression that I posted above. OTT competitiveness and drudgery.

There’s more than. Getting into the college is only the start of it. The real bonuses start then. It’s well known that a lot of scholarship recipients get preferential treatment cone exam time. I’m aware of two players (one a prominent ex dub) who used to get the exam papers the night before the exam.

They’re a shambolic concept when you think about it.

Surely that can’t be true? If there was even rumour of that going around the college there would be uproar.

'Lots of people remember Dr Cullen Park in 2002 as our first match under Tommy Lyons and the ‘jovial’ atmosphere of the crowd that came to watch us play Wexford that Saturday evening. But I remember my inter-county debut for starkly different reasons.
The same afternoon, myself and Barry Cahill were due to sit a finance exam in NUI Maynooth.

It was due to start at 2.30 and lasted three hours. Throw-in in Carlow was 6.0.

Somehow, we managed to strike a deal that the two of us would take the exam from 9.30am to 12.30

The college only agreed to the arrangement on the proviso that in those two hours in between us finishing the paper and everyone else beginning it, we would be chaperoned by a person of authority and effectively cut off from the rest of the world.

Willie Hughes, a Garda and the manager of our Sigerson Cup team, was the man picked for that particular duty.

So Willie had to stay with us for those two hours. He performed his duties admirably.

We weren’t allowed out of his sight. We weren’t allowed access to mobile phones, presumably in case we’d pass back any of the exam paper to our class-mates.

We got through the two hours with Willie and took a police escort to Dr Cullen Park, where we met up with the rest of the squad in time for the warm-up.

Not exactly what you’d call perfect psychological preparation for a Championship debut - but there you go.’

And you’re here saying two players got exam papers in advance? No way that could be feasible, the module co-ordinators would have to give it to specific students told by the management of college GAA team without any other students or member of faculty finding out. Nonsense.

Did it ever strike you as odd that these guys who received scholarships even though they missed the required points (by quite a distance in some instances) always seemed to come through their college courses with flying colours?

Some absolutely did get help when it came to exams. Can’t be sure it still happens but certainly did during the noughties.